Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-10-04
THE BIG NEWSPAPER
HAS THE LIMIT OF THE READERS
PATIENCE BEEN REACHED?

The Newspaper of the Future may De
Smaller Than tho Present Average.
Condensation in the Judicious Sense.
The Pictorial Practice.
When the big newspaper becomes still big
ger how is it to be delivereda Newsdealers
and carriers have already complained Of the
hardness of the task Of handling SO many
pounds of paper. How will it be when still
more pounds are addedi Why, it will be i'm
possible, certainly at the prevailing low rates.
The days of the cheap press will be passed.
The price must be very considerably In.
creased to induce the middlemen to dispose OF
Mr.. Jones' larger sheets and more of them.
The newspaper Of the future will be smaller
instead Of larger than the present average.
And it will be no worse a newspaper on that
account, but rather better. This result will
be reached by condensation in the judicious
sense. don't mean by this "boiling down
everything" SO that there is little of spirit or
substance left in the article or paragraph, or
anything much but the heading. The process
to which 1 refer is condensation by exclusion.
The newspaper Of the future will publish
only what it is really worth while to publish
The newspaper of the present prints vast
which nobody is profted by reading or actu-
ally wants TO read, or having read recalls a
moment later. If all OF this were omitted the
| newspaper would shrink rapidly.
IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS.
But it is not only the literary department
that condensation is advantageously practi-
cable The commercial department is as in
viting field. I doubt that the present sys-
tenn of advertising will be in operation in
| 1887, or even in 1887. An illustration will
| point the case. If all the newspapers in New
| York should agree to double their advertising
rates, and if in consequence the advertisers
| should buy half as much space as heretofore.
| it is, of course, automatically demonstra-
| BILE that the newspapers would be no worse
| off pecuniariy. think it Is morally demon
| strable that the advertisers would be no
worse off ia respect to the publicity Of their
business, but that all hands by and by would
be great deal better off in every way.
The advertisement would attract very
nearly as much attention. 1t would get
| quite as much if the advertisers agreed to
stand upon level. 1t is the competition in
magnitude-the struggle for a longer an
nouncement and for bigger letters. the enor-
| nous alphabetical blotches which disfgure
SO many daily journals-that characterizes
the system. Then there is another sort OF
competition within the paper itself, between
| the literary and commercial columns.
THE PICTORIAL PRACTICE.
| Mr.. Ottendorfer says: II think the habit OF
| presenting Illustrations in such journals is
foolish and in very bad taste" l certainly
| agree with him; but if we should trace the
genesis Of the pictorial practice might we not
| find that it originated in part in supposed
necessity for an offset to the black, street
poster letters of the advertisements There
was, perhaps, disposition to restore the bal
ance between the departments, and to do it
bloated headings, monstrous "cuts" and diffuse
| padding Of all sorts were resorted to. This
| policy of the literary half in turn stimulates
| the commercial half to fresh efforts.
II journalism could recover from this mad
ness of magnitude the two sides would still
act and react upon each other, but in a more
wholesome way. Both would learn that
| there are effective opportunities in compact
ness Of space and moderation OF statement.
1t seems to me that the hope of JOURNALISM,
lies in some such reform as this. Otherwise
its fate threatens to resemble that Of an over
grown, gigantic vegetable, not nutritious.
| but running to useless pulp and unproductive
seed.
l think the newspaper of the future will
| have smaller pages and fewer of them. The
| tendency almost everywhere seems away
| from the blanket form.-Cor Brooklyn
| EaoIa